Eminem Uses Tinder—and Grindr?!—to Find Dates

In a conversation with Vulture to promote his new album, Revival, he offers rare insight into his love life. "It's tough. Since my divorce I've had a few dates and nothing's panned out in a way that I wanted to make it public," he says. "Dating's just not where I'm at lately." But, the Detroit-based rapper admits he has met women using apps like Tinder ("and Grindr," he jokes).

"I also used to go to strip clubs. What can I say? Going to strip clubs is how I was meeting some chicks," the Grammy winner says of flirting with women IRL. "It was an interesting time for me."

Eminem is currently single, and, it seems, the "Walk on Water" rapper intends to keep it that way—for now. "Am I lonely? No, I'm good," he tells the website. "Thanks for asking, though."

Of course, it doesn't help that his music has been called misogynistic. Eminem understands the criticism, even if he doesn't agree he is misogynistic. "I've had my share of experiences with women where I've felt a certain way and been mad enough to make songs about those feelings. All the bulls--t around that—I'm not making an excuse, but the mentality that I've had since I was rapping at open mics was that you better have s--t that's going to get a reaction or you will not be accepted when you're on the mic. Your first, second, third, and fourth line better grab attention or you're done. That attitude morphed into my music. A lot of times I'm saying stuff just to get that reaction," the rapper, 45, says in hindsight. "Maybe I took it too far sometimes."

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"I'm sure people have misunderstood what I was doing," he says, before volunteering that people often bring up homophobic slurs in his old lyrics. "Again, I'm not a perfect human being and I'm sure that I've said things that went a little too hard, but I think my actual life shows—I mean, meeting Elton John and being as good friends with him as I am, that's not me saying, 'Hey, I've got a gay friend.' It's me saying Elton John has my back. He'll stick up for me." In fact, John recently revealed on The Graham Norton Show that Eminem gave him diamond-encrusted sex toys as a wedding present. "I don't know, I put people on it and they made it happen," he says of the gift. "Actually, I had some diamond-encrusted cock rings, too. Right in my bedroom."

"I used to watch the news, before it made me crazy. I don't know. I see movies," he says, adding that he saw the Tupac biopic, All Eyez on Me, twice. But, given his massive fame, he can't just go to the local multiplex. "I rent out the theater," he says. "I've tried to go like normal and it hasn't worked out too well." He isn't keen on books, though. "I can't process things I read except for my own writing. I have to go back and read the same pages over again all the time."

Instead, Eminem often finds himself binge-watching TV shows at home. "Power is one of my favorites. Westworld. Breaking Bad. Sons of Anarchy. Godless," he says. "Have you seen that? F--king incredible." He's a big fan of scripted television, since watching pundits on CNN and "a little bit" of Fox News is too upsetting. "That s--t was making me want to jump through the TV and choke somebody. The way they'd talk about NFL protests: 'These athletes are making how much money?' You f--king idiot! The Fox right-wing guys criticize Black Lives Matter for not being peaceful and then when a football player peacefully takes a knee they criticize that, too. They say this s--t about, 'We just want football. We don't want to hear about your political problems.' To me, what they're really saying is, 'Shut up, N-word,'" Eminem says. "It's bulls--t."